A sniffer dog has rumbled crooks trying to smuggle 99 million cigarettes into the country.
The goods were seized in what was the single largest seizure of illegal cigarettes ever at a UK port.
Eight container contained the cigarettes, which were worth about £44m in unpaid taxes, His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said.
They were discovered at the port of Hull in East Yorkshire and were believed to have been shipped through the United Arab Emirates, import papers suggested.
The import documents described the containers as carrying birchwood logs, but a Border Force sniffer dog uncovered the haul of illegal tobacco.
A 57-year-old man from South Wales was arrested in July in connection with the seizure and has been released on bail, HMRC said.
Another man from the Birmingham area had been interviewed under caution, with investigations ongoing, it added.
Anthony Usher, deputy director of HMRC's fraud investigation service, said: "This is the single largest seizure of cigarettes ever made at a UK port.
"Our streets would have been flooded with them had they not been discovered.
“We are determined to stamp out tobacco fraud by working closely with partners in the UK and internationally to bring those responsible to justice.
“Cheap cigarettes come at a cost as they often fund organised crime and other illegal activity that causes real harm to our communities, such as drugs, guns and human trafficking."
Irene Hall from Border Force's northern region said: “Illicit cigarettes are dangerous, harmful and fund organised criminal gangs.
“The officers involved can be proud that this huge interception has stopped illicit cigarettes from entering our communities.”
The discovery of the drugs in June was only revealed today.
In a separate seizure The Mirror reported how a gran who was caught smuggling £1million of cocaine with her husband on a cruise ship had died lonely and in agony in her tiny prison cell in Portugal.
Susan Clarke, 72, died of breast cancer in the Portuguese jail where she was serving eight years.
As her condition worsened she was allowed a final visit from husband Roger, 73, two years after they were locked up in separate jails.
A source said Susan had been due to return to England to finish her term and being without her family in her final hours must have been “torture”.
They said: “She was handed a life sentence – left to die in a foreign prison with no loved ones around her.
“Four weeks ago she was given one last visit with Roger. They saw each other through a Perspex window.
“She had a lump in her throat which meant she couldn’t actually speak."
The couple were arrested after a tip-off as the Marco Polo liner sailed into Lisbon from the Caribbean in December 2018.
